Glacier Bancorp (NYSE:GBCI) vs. WSFS Financial (NASDAQ:WSFS) Financial Review

Glacier Bancorp (NYSE:GBCI) and WSFS Financial (NASDAQ:WSFS) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, profitability, earnings, valuation and institutional ownership.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

80.2% of Glacier Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.5% of WSFS Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Glacier Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of WSFS Financial shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Glacier Bancorp and WSFS Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Glacier Bancorp	19.72%	7.97%	1.05%
WSFS Financial	23.34%	11.71%	1.47%

Dividends

Glacier Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. WSFS Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Glacier Bancorp pays out 54.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. WSFS Financial pays out 13.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. WSFS Financial has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Glacier Bancorp and WSFS Financial”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Glacier Bancorp	$1.44 billion	4.06	$239.03 million	$2.44	18.36
WSFS Financial	$1.36 billion	2.98	$287.35 million	$5.98	13.24

WSFS Financial has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Glacier Bancorp. WSFS Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Glacier Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Glacier Bancorp has a beta of 0.72, indicating that its share price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WSFS Financial has a beta of 0.76, indicating that its share price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Glacier Bancorp and WSFS Financial, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Glacier Bancorp	1	2	5	0	2.50
WSFS Financial	0	5	3	0	2.38

Glacier Bancorp currently has a consensus target price of $55.17, suggesting a potential upside of 23.14%. WSFS Financial has a consensus target price of $83.07, suggesting a potential upside of 4.91%. Given Glacier Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Glacier Bancorp is more favorable than WSFS Financial.

Summary

WSFS Financial beats Glacier Bancorp on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Glacier Bancorp

Glacier Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Glacier Bank that provides commercial banking services to individuals, small to medium-sized businesses, community organizations, and public entities in the United States. It offers non-interest bearing deposit and interest bearing deposit accounts, such as negotiable order of withdrawal and demand deposit accounts, savings accounts, money market deposit accounts, fixed rate certificates of deposit, negotiated-rate jumbo certificates, and individual retirement accounts. The company also provides construction and permanent loans on residential real estate; consumer land or lot acquisition loans; unimproved land and land development loans; and residential builder guidance lines comprising pre-sold and spec-home construction, and lot acquisition loans. In addition, it offers commercial real estate loans to purchase, construct, and finance commercial real estate properties; consumer loans secured by real estate, automobiles, or other assets; paycheck protection program loans; home equity loans consisting of junior lien mortgages, and first and junior lien lines of credit secured by owner-occupied 1-4 family residences; and agriculture loans. Further, the company provides mortgage origination and loan servicing services. It has 224 locations, including 188 branches and 36 loan or administration offices in 75 counties within 8 states comprising Montana, Idaho, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada. The company was founded in 1955 and is headquartered in Kalispell, Montana.

About WSFS Financial

WSFS Financial Corporation operates as the savings and loan holding company for the Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB that provides various banking services in the United States. It operates through three segments: WSFS Bank, Cash Connect, and Wealth Management. It offers various deposit products, including savings accounts, demand deposits, interest-bearing demand deposits, money market deposit accounts, and certificates of deposit, as well as accepts jumbo certificates of deposit from individuals, businesses, and municipalities. The company also provides a range of loans, which comprise fixed and adjustable rate residential loans; commercial mortgage and commercial loans; commercial construction loans; commercial loans for working capital, financing equipment and real estate acquisitions, business expansion and other business purposes; and consumer credit products, such as home equity loans, home equity lines of credit, automobile loans, unsecured lines of credit, and other secured and unsecured personal installment loans. In addition, it offers insurance products; planning and advisory services, investment management, trust services, and credit and deposit products to individual, corporate and institutional clients; retail securities and insurance brokerage services; mortgage and title services; residential mortgage and refinancing solutions; and leases small equipment and fixed assets, as well as provides financial planning, customized investment strategies, brokerage products, fiduciary, and wealth management services. Further, the company provides ATM vault cash, smart safe, and other cash logistics services; and online reporting and ATM cash management, predictive cash ordering and reconcilement services, armored carrier management, loss protection, and deposit safe cash logistics services, as well as trustee, agency, bankruptcy administration, custodial and commercial domicile services. The company was founded in 1832 and is based in Wilmington, Delaware.